Soluyanov Sergey

Once the Tamiya primer had fully dried and its even matt tone allowed me to properly assess the hull for the first time, I turned my attention to one of the most prominent features of any vessel — the portholes. On the kit they were moulded directly into the plastic hull, but their quality caused only frustration: asymmetrical shapes, blurred edges, varying depth and sink marks in several places. Leaving them untouched on a model aspiring to museum accuracy was out of the question.

So every single factory porthole was ruthlessly filled. I carefully packed each recess with Tamiya Basic Putty, let it dry completely and sanded it flush with the hull side. Then, armed with drawings and photographs of the prototype, I laid out a new, precise marking: the position of each porthole was checked for height and centre‑to‑centre spacing to achieve a perfectly even row. I drilled in stages — starting with a fine bit at the centre of each mark, then opening up to the required diameter while checking the shape and cleanliness of the edge. After drilling, each porthole was lightly chamfered by hand with a countersink bit to suggest the thickness of the shell plating. The result — neat, symmetrical openings aligned along a single axis, something that would have been impossible to achieve using the original mouldings.

The second major task of this stage was making the rubbing strakes — a characteristic feature of a tanker’s hull that protects the side during berthing and, at the same time, gives the vessel its recognisable working silhouette. The kit provided no parts for them, so I scratch‑built the strakes entirely. The material was polystyrene strip of a suitable cross‑section. I pre‑bent each strip to follow the hull contours at the correct position by heating the plastic over hot water and holding the shape until it cooled. The strakes were then glued to the sides strictly parallel to the waterline, carefully checking symmetry between port and starboard. Joints and ends were filled, sanded and re‑primed so that the rubbing strakes visually became an integral part of the hull rather than looking like glued‑on patches.

By the end of this stage the hull had begun to acquire its true character: an even chain of neat portholes and the crisp lines of the rubbing strakes immediately gave the sides depth, relief and a realistic sense of scale.